The Facts of Reconstruction

The Facts of Reconstruction

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The Facts of Reconstruction by John Roy Lynch

Published:

1913

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The Facts of Reconstruction

By

2.5
(2 Reviews)
Was the enfranchisement of the black men at the South by act of Congress a grave mistake?Were the reconstructed State Governments that were organized as a result thereof a disappointment and a failure?Was the Fifteenth Amendment to the Federal Constitution premature and unwise?

Book Excerpt

osition that no respectable white Democrat could afford to participate in an election in which colored men were allowed to vote. To do so, they held, would not only be humiliating to the pride of the white men, but the contamination would be unwise if not dangerous. Besides, they were firm in the belief and honest in the conviction that the country would ultimately repudiate the Congressional Plan of Reconstruction, and that in the mean time it would be both safe and wise for them to give expression to their objections to it and abhorrence of it by pursuing a course of masterly inactivity. The liberal and conservative element in the party was so bitterly opposed to this course that in spite of the action of the State Convention several counties, as has been already stated, bolted the action of the convention and took part in the election.

Of the Republican membership of the Constitutional Convention a large majority were white men,--many of them natives of the State and a number of others, though born

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The texts is important for a number of reasons;First, it was the first text authored by a black critic that refutes Traditionalist's interpretations of Reconstruction History. Second, Lynch's stands as one of the earliest Revisionist critiques in regard to black leadership during Restruction. Third, Lynch's accounts are from firsthand knowlege of the period, Lynch held a number of political posts in Reconstruction Mississippi. Lynch's text makes three important assertions: (1)the enfranchaisement of blacks Post Civil War was the right thing to do. He argues strenuously that black politicians strove to make Reconstruction a success, but were actually not in control of southern states. Lynch maintained that political power was placed in the hands of white appointtees. (2)Like Alrutheus and DuBois, Lynch maintained that depite being short-lived, Reconstruction was a success, not a failed project. (3)Lynch also praised the passage of the 15th Admendment.